Regularity of the solutions of the steady‐state Boussinesq equations with thermocapillarity effects on the surface of the liquid

In this paper we show that every variational solution of the steady‐state Boussinesq equations ( u , p, θ) with thermocapillarity effect on the surface of the liquid has the following regularity: u ∈ H²(Ω)², p ∈ H¹(Ω), θ ∈ H²(Ω) under appropriate hypotheses on the angles of the ‘2‐D’ container (a cross‐section of the 3‐D container in fact) and of the horizontal surface of the liquid with the inner surface of the container. The difficulty comes from the boundary condition on the surface of the liquid (e.g. water) which modelizes the thermocapillarity effect on the surface of the liquid (equation (68.10) of Levich 7]). More precisely we will show that u ∈ P²₂(Ω)² and that θ ∈ P²₂(Ω), where P²₂(Ω) denotes the usual Kondratiev space. This result will be used in a forthcoming paper to prove convergence results for finite element methods intended to compute approximations of a non‐singular solution 1] of this problem. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.